She Rises I

One out of 3 women in the world have been or will be victims/survivors of sexual assault. It’s an experience I never want for my daughter. But there are challenges out there that she must face every day. The media is constantly presenting her with images that tell her that her only value is her body. Recently, she shared with me how violated she felt by the constant media onslaught, showing me the casting call that was released for the proposed movie, Straight Out of Compton. “Mommy,” she said, “it’s so racist and sexist.” It is. That same week, the two of us visited the Slave Museum in Charleston. While there, we noticed a panel that explained how enslaved persons were rated for value. We were both struck by how similar the casting call was to the slave ratings. And we wondered at how current media and entertainers are, perhaps unknowingly, mimicking the behaviors and philosophies of the past -- from Sarratjie Baartman, known as the Hottentot Venus, who was carted about Europe in the early 1800’s and exploited as a curiosity, to the images of Kim Kardashian and Nikki Minaj that mirror Baartman’s objectification; from the slavers who felt entitled to use and abuse the bodies of enslaved women, to the rappers who celebrate the same. We must educate, encourage, and empower ourselves to rise above these challenges.

I created She Rises I and II for the ISM's exhibit in 2014. I wanted to create art that honors the sacred feminine and radiates power, strength and self-determination. And I realized that the best imagery I could possibly find for the holiness, beauty, and strength of Black womanhood was in the face of my own daughter, Sara, who is the model for these pieces. Worked into each painting are adinkra symbols, tying the familiar sacred imagery of stained glass windows to our African ancestry. She rises.